I hope it has one. But I still don't see an external slot anywhere in the photos. I want to be able to access the SD card without removing the battery.
Edit: Though, so far the rumors are saying that it doesn't have a removable battery :/

Going back to my earlier observation that there appears to be no external SD card slot. Maybe that means that there's going to be a removable battery? ...or maybe just that speakerphone section is removable and hiding it?

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You remove the top piece to get to the sd slot, battery as far as I know, isn't removable.

Doh, that too...LOL...I love the fact that it also has a dedicated camera button like the Photon. Battery is not that much better than the Photon's and my experience with Motorola battery management to be much better than any of my past HTC's, but at the same time (as you mentioned), the processor might help for better battery management in the vein of what I get with the Photon (hopefully better).

Same here. Samsung needs to announce it already so I can compare. Even if it comes Aug/Sept.....I just want to know the specs.

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Well, you can probably assume that they're going to release the international SGS III prior to the US version, so you may have a pretty good idea of what the specs are once more info comes out on that version. If that translates to the US version is a whole different story. Obviously, the HTC EVO LTE has proven that things could change from the international version.

Well, you can probably assume that they're going to release the international SGS III prior to the US version, so you may have a pretty good idea of what the specs are once more info comes out on that version. If that translates to the US version is a whole different story. Obviously, the HTC EVO LTE has proven that things could change from the international version.

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Exactly! I know it will be awhile for the U.S. But when they announce the international version....I can at least get an idea of what Im looking at. Either way, I'm excited that I can finally upgrade this year.

Doh, that too...LOL...I love the fact that it also has a dedicated camera button like the Photon. Battery is not that much better than the Photon's and my experience with Motorola battery management to be much better than any of my past HTC's, but at the same time (as you mentioned), the processor might help for better battery management in the vein of what I get with the Photon (hopefully better).

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Our mileage varied, as you know, I stuck with the 3D and have gotten stellar battery performance (root and killing bloatware absolutely required) - many Rezound owners saying the same thing as well.

The key things in my mind will be the screen and radios.

Let's just admit it - as soon as any of us get this beast, we're going to go all schizophrenic per usual: pushing every boundary going WOW at the performance, then trying (and not always not failing) to lay off that to see how the battery will do under normal use. So, it'll take days, maybe a few weeks, for the new to wear off and start sharing _reliable_ battery reports. Am I right?

The S4, like the S3 before it, will clock the two cpu cores asynchronously (read: different speeds, on demand) and even shut down a core as needed to save battery life. So, that architecture, along with the 28 nm manufacturing process used to build the S4, will save power.

tl/dr: power savings as has been said all along.

But for an LCD, the power draw is largely the backlight, and brightness is a function of screen size - bigger screen needs more lighting, that can eat up the power tradeoff.

And then we have the magic of CDMA+LTE - last I checked (I'll post substantiating link later, bookmark not on this machine) with LTE, the CDMA has to be on at the same time. The common meme is that LTE isn't that bad on the battery but the truth is that the Verizon forums here show reports all over the map on that one - again, except for the HTC Rezound.

So, I'm thinking this will be a wash in battery comparison to the 3D when all is said and done - perhaps better if we can have less variation on things here.

Which leads to the one thing I've yet to see mentioned - in ICS, you can supposedly freeze bloatware without rooting. If that's still allowed here, that will be a huge plus. No way will this be the first phone without bloatware. It will be nice to freeze it from day one for accurate battery and performance comparisons.

in most of the reviews of the original design, there's mention of an optical illusion kind of thing happening where it looks like stuff is floating on top of the display. I believe I read it was due to the curved edges or something along with the slcd. I'm wondering if this version will or will not achieve that effect seeing as how it's missing the infinity edges. any thoughts???

in most of the reviews of the original design, there's mention of an optical illusion kind of thing happening where it looks like stuff is floating on top of the display. I believe I read it was due to the curved edges or something along with the slcd. I'm wondering if this version will or will not achieve that effect seeing as how it's missing the infinity edges. any thoughts???

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its due to the fact that in the screen (what they are calling SLCD2) the distance between the display and the surface of the glass is MUCH less then most screens, so it actually is closer to your fingers. it'll be on this phone too

Let's just admit it - as soon as any of us get this beast, we're going to go all schizophrenic per usual: pushing every boundary going WOW at the performance, then trying (and not always not failing) to lay off that to see how the battery will do under normal use. So, it'll take days, maybe a few weeks, for the new to wear off and start sharing _reliable_ battery reports. Am I right?

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i'm afraid you are correct sir! it took me nearly a MONTH to stop constantly playing with my new EVO, i was charging 3 times a day, but now i make it the whole day...

i may actually hold off on rooting this phone too... the EVO lagged and Sense was a little "ugly" on my OG EVO but on this guy....

HW accel with ICS destroys lag like nobodies buisness and sense 4.0 is actually attractive... i may just keep it stock for a while (i'll probably fail and be rooting within a week)

Our mileage varied, as you know, I stuck with the 3D and have gotten stellar battery performance (root and killing bloatware absolutely required) - many Rezound owners saying the same thing as well.

The key things in my mind will be the screen and radios.

Let's just admit it - as soon as any of us get this beast, we're going to go all schizophrenic per usual: pushing every boundary going WOW at the performance, then trying (and not always not failing) to lay off that to see how the battery will do under normal use. So, it'll take days, maybe a few weeks, for the new to wear off and start sharing _reliable_ battery reports. Am I right?

The S4, like the S3 before it, will clock the two cpu cores asynchronously (read: different speeds, on demand) and even shut down a core as needed to save battery life. So, that architecture, along with the 28 nm manufacturing process used to build the S4, will save power.

tl/dr: power savings as has been said all along.

But for an LCD, the power draw is largely the backlight, and brightness is a function of screen size - bigger screen needs more lighting, that can eat up the power tradeoff.

And then we have the magic of CDMA+LTE - last I checked (I'll post substantiating link later, bookmark not on this machine) with LTE, the CDMA has to be on at the same time. The common meme is that LTE isn't that bad on the battery but the truth is that the Verizon forums here show reports all over the map on that one - again, except for the HTC Rezound.

So, I'm thinking this will be a wash in battery comparison to the 3D when all is said and done - perhaps better if we can have less variation on things here.

Which leads to the one thing I've yet to see mentioned - in ICS, you can supposedly freeze bloatware without rooting. If that's still allowed here, that will be a huge plus. No way will this be the first phone without bloatware. It will be nice to freeze it from day one for accurate battery and performance comparisons.

Click to expand...

That's the thing. Still haven't rooted and battery life on the MoPho has been awesome. With Motorola's built in battery management, it's helped tremendously (and I actually erased Juice Defender because of it).

I was in to grab a CD and stopped by the mobile department just to check on the off chance - They have had a few phones recently that were pre-orderable the same day as their official announcement.

I prefer the Best Buy pre-order to any other since there is no risk. Your pre-order $$ just gets transferred to a gift card that goes right back into your pocket. It is my contingency plan in case anything else gets announced that I may want to wait for or switch to. Although buying the Evo 3D, early no less, through Sprint.com was pain free. It was lucky that nothing else came out that made me too remorseful.

Maybe Best Buy will be respectful of Sprint and wait until May 7th or later to start their pre-orders.